The Spread of Islam and Christianity through the World
While both Christianity and
Islam have grown in their different ways, all other religions of the world have
remained largely confined to their homelands and, for many, their share in the
world has sharply shrunk. There has been some increase in their diaspora, but
this represents only movement of people and not religions. We shall give
detailed numbers for the diaspora of different religions in a later note.
In our previous
blog we gave a background of the sources of international religious
demography. In this note, based on data from those sources, we give an overview
of the changes that have taken place in the religious demography of the world
and its different regions in the course of the twentieth century.
Between 1900
and 2010, the world has witnessed a great expansion of its two great
proselytizing religions, Christianity and Islam. The share of Islam in the
population of the world has increased by 10 percentage points, from 12.3
percent in 1900 to 22.5 percent in 2010. The share of Christianity in the total
population of the world has not changed, but it has expanded deep into Africa
and parts of Asia.
At the
beginning of the twentieth century, Christianity was confined to the continents
of Europe and Americas. Of 558 million Christians in the world in 1900, only 32
million, forming less than 6 percent of the total, were in Asia and Africa. In
2010, of 2,260 million Christians in the world 836 million, forming 37 percent
of the total, are in Africa and Asia. The number of Christians in Africa and
Asia together is now about the same as their number in Europe and North
America.
Nearly half of
the population of Africa is now Christian. This Christianisation of the African
continent during the twentieth century is among the great success stories of
the Church and it has given the Church the confidence and resolve to attempt a
similar penetration of Christianity into Asia in the course of the twenty-first
century.
Muslims have
increased in numbers, but they have not spread into newer parts of the world.
The distribution of Muslims across the world remains nearly the same as at the
beginning of the twentieth century.
But the growth
of Muslims has been faster than other communities in nearly every part of the
world. Consequently, their share in the population of the world as a whole and
in different regions and countries of the world has increased substantially
during the twentieth century, giving rise to severe tensions in several parts
of the world. We shall give data on the increased share of Christians and
Muslims in the population of different regions and countries of the world in
further detail in our forthcoming note.
Religious profile of the World
|
Table 1: RELIGIOUS PROFILE OF THE WORLD, 1900-2010
|
||||||
|
|
1900
|
1970
|
2010
|
1900
|
1970
|
2010
|
|
Total
|
1,619,626
|
3,696,158
|
6,895,889
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
|
Christians
|
558,132
|
1,236,374
|
2,260,436
|
34.46
|
33.45
|
32.78
|
|
Muslims
|
199,941
|
553,528
|
1,553,775
|
12.34
|
14.98
|
22.53
|
|
Jews
|
12,292
|
14,763
|
14,762
|
0.76
|
0.40
|
0.21
|
|
Hindus
|
203,003
|
462,598
|
948,575
|
12.53
|
12.52
|
13.76
|
|
Sikhs
|
2,962
|
10,618
|
23,927
|
0.18
|
0.29
|
0.35
|
|
Jains
|
1,323
|
2,618
|
5,316
|
0.08
|
0.07
|
0.08
|
|
Buddhists
|
127,077
|
233,424
|
494,880
|
7.85
|
6.32
|
7.18
|
|
Chinese R.
|
380,006
|
231,865
|
436,257
|
23.46
|
6.27
|
6.33
|
|
Ethnic R.
|
117,558
|
160,278
|
242,517
|
7.26
|
4.34
|
3.52
|
|
New R.
|
5,910
|
77,762
|
63,005
|
0.36
|
2.10
|
0.91
|
|
Non-Religious
|
3,024
|
532,096
|
676,943
|
0.19
|
14.40
|
9.82
|
|
Atheists
|
226
|
165,400
|
136,653
|
0.01
|
4.47
|
1.98
|
|
Sources: D. B. Barrett, G. T. Kurian and T. M. Johnson, World Christian Encylopaedia, 2nd edition, Oxford
University Press, New York 2001, for 1900 and 1970; and, T. M. Johnson and
B. J. Grim, The World’s Religions in
Figures, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester 2013, for 2010. Note: Sum of individual religions may not add up to the total
population because several relatively less numerous religions have not been
included in the Table. Populations are in thousands.
|
||||||
Islam sharply
increases its share in the world
The twentieth century, especially its latter half, has
been the century of Islam, at least in terms of demographic growth. Share of
Muslims in the population of the world has increased from 12.34 percent in 1900
to 22.53 percent in 2010, and a major part of this increase of 10 percentage
points has accrued in the last four decades. This has made Muslims the second
largest religious community of the world after the Christians, and ahead of
both the Chinese Religionists and Hindus, who both outnumbered the Muslims at
the beginning of the century.
Christianity
spreads into newer continents
Christians have retained their share intact at around
one-third of the world population, though the share of the Christian continent of
Europe in the population of the world has sharply declined and a large number
of European people have abandoned their faith in the course of the twentieth
century. This has been compensated by a vast expansion of Christianity into the
previously non-Christian parts of the world. This makes the twentieth century
as much a century of the expansion of Christianity as of Islam.
Islam and
Christianity now form 55 percent of the world
As a consequence, the adherents of the Abrahamic
religions, Muslims and Christians together, have now come to form a majority of
the population of the world. They had a share of less than 47 percent in 1900;
their share now is above 55 percent. In addition, the non-Religious and Atheists
have acquired a share of about 12 percent.
Native
religions of China and Africa loose heavily
The loss has been of the native religions of China,
whose share in the population of the world has declined steeply from 23.46 to
6.33 percent in this period, and of native ethnic religionists of mainly Africa,
who have declined from 7.26 to 3.52 percent. The more systematized religions
like Hinduism and Buddhism have largely kept their shares intact.
Conversions and differential growth of populations drive these changes
These changes in the religious profile of the world have been driven by two factors: one, faster growth of populations in Asia, Africa and Latin America as compared to Europe; and two, conversion of large populations to both Christianity and Islam in Africa and in parts of Asia. In the following, we describe this shifting of the demographic balance of the world away from Europe and of its religious balance towards Islam and Christianity.
Shifting of the
demographic balance
|
Table 2: Population
(in thousands) of different Continents of the World
|
||||||
|
1900
|
1970
|
1990
|
2000
|
2010
|
MF
|
|
|
Total
|
1,619,627
|
3,696,158
|
5,266,440
|
6,055,044
|
6,895,889
|
4.26
|
|
Asia
|
956,196
|
2,147,030
|
3,180,594
|
3,682,550
|
4,164,252
|
4.36
|
|
Africa
|
107,808
|
357,039
|
614,770
|
784,445
|
1,022,236
|
9.48
|
|
Europe
|
402,608
|
656,444
|
722,206
|
728,887
|
738,197
|
1.83
|
|
North
America
|
81,626
|
231,540
|
281,988
|
309,631
|
344,529
|
4.22
|
|
Latin
America
|
65,142
|
284,796
|
440,470
|
519,138
|
590,082
|
9.06
|
|
Oceania
|
6,246
|
19,310
|
26,412
|
30,393
|
36,593
|
5.86
|
|
Percent Share of different
Continents in the population of the World
|
||||||
|
Asia
|
59.04
|
58.09
|
60.39
|
60.82
|
60.39
|
1.02
|
|
Africa
|
6.66
|
9.66
|
11.67
|
12.96
|
14.82
|
2.23
|
|
Europe
|
24.86
|
17.76
|
13.71
|
12.04
|
10.70
|
0.43
|
|
North
America
|
5.04
|
6.26
|
5.35
|
5.11
|
5.00
|
0.99
|
|
Latin
America
|
4.02
|
7.71
|
8.36
|
8.57
|
8.56
|
2.13
|
|
Oceania
|
0.39
|
0.52
|
0.50
|
0.50
|
0.53
|
1.38
|
Europe lags in population
growth
During the twentieth century, the population of the world has
multiplied by 4.26 times, rising from 1.62 billion in 1900 and 6.90 billion in
2010. Asia, the most populous continent of the world, has grown at nearly the
same rate as the world as a whole. Population of Europe, however, has grown far
more slowly, multiplying by less than 2 times, from 403 to only 738 million.
Populations of Africa and Latin America, on the other hand, have multiplied by
more than 9 times.
Share of Europe in the
world halves while that of Africa and Latin America doubles
Consequently, the share of Europe in the total population of the
world has declined from nearly 25 percent in 1990 to less than 11 percent in
2010. The share of Africa has meanwhile
more than doubled from 6.7 to 14.8 percent and that of Latin America has
similarly risen from 4.0 to 8.6 percent. The share of North America rose
slightly from 5.0 to 6.3 percent between 1900 and 1970, but has declined to the
level of 1900 in the four decades since then. The share of Oceania has also
risen a little, but it remains small at about half a percent of the world.
Asia retains its share of
60 percent, but East Asia lags behind other regions
|
Table 3: Changing share of different regions of Asia
|
|||||||
|
|
Population in ‘000
|
%Share in Asia
|
|
||||
|
|
1900
|
1970
|
2010
|
1900
|
1970
|
2010
|
MF
|
|
ASIA
|
956,196
|
2,147,030
|
4,164,252
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
100.00
|
4.36
|
|
East
Asia
|
532,545
|
986,644
|
1,573,970
|
55.69
|
45.95
|
37.80
|
2.96
|
|
South
Asia
|
292,409
|
712,308
|
1,598,760
|
30.58
|
33.18
|
38.39
|
5.47
|
|
Southeast
Asia
|
80,629
|
286,708
|
593,414
|
8.43
|
13.35
|
14.25
|
7.36
|
|
Central
Asia
|
20,921
|
75,229
|
166,112
|
2.19
|
3.50
|
3.99
|
7.94
|
|
West
Asia
|
29,641
|
85,988
|
231,996
|
3.10
|
4.00
|
5.57
|
7.83
|
Asia has continued to form around 60 percent of the population
of the world throughout this period. However, the growth rates have been very
different for different regions of the continent. In particular, the population
of East Asia has multiplied by less than 3 times, while that of South Asia, the
other highly populous region of the continent, has multiplied by nearly 5.5
times. This difference is mainly because of the relatively lower growth of
China compared to India. Other regions of Asia have multiplied by 7 to 8 times.
Consequently, the share of East Asia in Asia has declined from 55.7 to 37.8
percent and that of South Asia has risen from 30.6 to 38.4 percent. The share
of the rest of Asia has also increased from 13.7 to 23.8 percent.
Expansion of Christianity
beyond Europe
|
Table 4: Number of Christian
in different Continents of the World
(in thousands) |
|||||
|
1900
|
1970
|
1990
|
2000
|
2010
|
|
|
Total
|
558,132
|
1,236,374
|
1,747,462
|
1,999,564
|
2,260,436
|
|
Asia
|
21,898
|
101,395
|
248,728
|
312,849
|
342,011
|
|
Africa
|
9,939
|
143,818
|
276,498
|
360,232
|
494,052
|
|
Europe
|
380,643
|
492,695
|
550,419
|
559,643
|
580,114
|
|
North
America
|
78,812
|
211,420
|
240,458
|
260,624
|
271,554
|
|
Latin
America
|
62,003
|
269,201
|
409,346
|
481,102
|
544,687
|
|
Oceania
|
4,838
|
17,845
|
22,010
|
25,110
|
28,019
|
|
Percent share of different
Continents in the Christians of the World
|
|||||
|
Asia
|
3.92
|
8.20
|
14.23
|
15.65
|
15.13
|
|
Africa
|
1.78
|
11.63
|
15.82
|
18.02
|
21.86
|
|
Europe
|
68.20
|
39.85
|
31.50
|
27.99
|
25.66
|
|
North
America
|
14.12
|
17.10
|
13.76
|
13.03
|
12.01
|
|
Latin
America
|
11.11
|
21.77
|
23.43
|
24.06
|
24.10
|
|
Oceania
|
0.87
|
1.44
|
1.26
|
1.26
|
1.24
|
Asia and Africa had few
Christians at the beginning of the twentieth century
Of 558 million Christians in the world in 1900, 381 million were
in Europe and they formed more than two-thirds of all Christians. Another 14
percent of the Christians were in North America and 11 percent in Latin
America. There were only 21.9 million Christians in Asia and less than 10
million in Africa. Asia and Africa together accounted for just 5.7 percent of
the Christians in the world.
Now only 38 percent of
the Christians in the world are in Europe and North America
In 2010, the total number of Christians has multiplied nearly 4
times to reach 2.26 billion, but only a quarter of them are now in Europe. The
share of Europe in the Christian population of the world has been declining
continuously during this period. The share of Christians in North America had
increased from 14 percent in 1900 to 17 percent in 1970, but has since declined
to 12 percent.
And 37 percent of
Christians are in Africa and Asia
While the shares of Europe and North America in the Christian
population of the world have declined that of Africa has risen from less than 2
to nearly 22 percent. Asia also now accommodates 15 percent of the Christians.
Africa and Asia together thus have nearly the same number of Christians as
Europe and North America; there are 836 million Christians in the former and
862 million in the latter. In 1900, there were only 32 million Christians in
Asia and Africa compared to 459 million in Europe and North America. Share of
Latin America in the Christian population of the world has also more than
doubled from 11 to 24 percent. As seen in the pie chart below, the distribution
of Christians through different continents of the world has been entirely
transformed in the course of the twentieth century. This process of penetration
of Christianity beyond Europe and North America has not subsided yet.
Rise in the share of Latin America is because of
higher population growth
higher population growth
Table 5: Share of Christians in the populations
of the world and different continents | ||||
1900
|
1970
|
1990
|
2010
| |
World
|
34.46
|
33.45
|
33.18
|
32.78
|
Asia
|
2.29
|
4.72
|
7.82
|
8.21
|
Africa
|
9.22
|
40.28
|
44.98
|
48.33
|
Europe
|
94.54
|
75.06
|
76.21
|
78.59
|
North America
|
96.55
|
91.31
|
85.27
|
78.82
|
Latin America
|
95.18
|
94.35
|
92.73
|
92.31
|
Oceania
|
77.46
|
92.41
|
83.34
|
76.57
|
The increased share of Latin America in the Christian population of the world is mainly due to the relatively higher growth of the total population of that continent as we have seen in Table 2 above. The share of Christians in the population of the continent, however, has not changed significantly during the twentieth century. Latin America has been converted long ago. Christians already had a share of 95 percent in the population there in 1900. That share has declined slightly to 92 percent in 2010. Even so, the share of Latin America in the total Christian population of the world has increased from 11 percent in 1900 to 24 percent in 2011.
Rise in the share of Asia is because of both conversion and
higher growth of population
The increased share of Asia in the total population of
Christians in the world is partly due to relatively higher growth of population
and partly due to conversion to Christianity. The share of Christians in the
population of Asia has registered a significant increase from 2.3 percent in
1900 to 8.2 percent in 2010 as seen in Table 5 above.
Africa has become another
Christian continent
The really significant expansion of Christianity during the
century, however, has been into Africa. Nearly half of the population of Africa
has been converted to Christianity in the course of the century. Christians
formed only 9 percent of the population of the continent in 1900; their share
is 48 percent in 2010. The expansion was rapid between 1900 and 1970, but it
has continued robustly during the last four decades. (See, Table 5).
Decline of the share of Europe and North America in the
Christians of the world is
because of both lower growth of population and widespread loss of faith
because of both lower growth of population and widespread loss of faith
Decline of the share of Europe in the Christian population of
the world has been driven by both a relatively slower growth of the population
of Europe and a decline in the share of Christians in the total population of
the continent. Europe was a Christian continent in 1900 with nearly 95 percent
of its population adhering to the faith. By 1970, the share of European
population professing the Christian faith had declined to 75 percent; since
then, there has been a slight improvement in their share. (See, Table 5 for
this and the following paragraphs).
In 1900, North American continent was also nearly entirely
Christian; 97 percent of the population of the continent followed Christianity
then. That proportion has declined to 79 percent in 2010, which is almost the
same as in Europe now. Unlike in Europe, the decline in North America has been
largely after 1970 and seems to be still continuing.
In Europe and North America, the main cause of decline in the
share of Christians is the loss of faith by a large section of the population.
In both continents, nearly 15 percent of the population in 2010 is either
Non-Religious or Atheist. There also has been some increase in the share of
other religions, especially of Islam in Europe. But the shrinking share of
Christianity in Europe and North America is driven by not the rise of religious
diversity but contraction of religious faith. Those who are thus lost to the Christian
faith are in no way lost to the Christian civilization of the West and are
potentially recoverable, as witnessed by the recent resurgence of faith in
several countries of Europe, and as seen in the tentative rise in the share of
Christians in the population of Europe after 1970.
Penetration of Christianity into Africa is the big story of the
twentieth century;
Asia is the target for the twenty-first
Asia is the target for the twenty-first
The big story of the twentieth story, as far as the Church is
concerned, is the expansion of Christianity deep into Africa, and its tentative
spread into parts of Asia. This expansion has been carefully planned and nurtured
by the international Church. As we saw in our previous note, the discipline of
international religious demography has emerged from the extensive surveys and
intense research undertaken in East Africa in aid of missionary work there. The
Church is mightily proud of its expansion into Africa during the twentieth
century and it seems to have given the Church the confidence to make a similar
push into Asia in the twenty-first century. The pride and the determination are
evident in the following exhortation of Pope John Paul II in his homily before
a large Diwali-day congregation at Delhi on November 7, 1999:
“Just as the first millennium saw the Cross
firmly planted in the soil of Europe and the second in that of America and
Africa, so may the Third Christian Millennium witness a great harvest of faith on this vast and vital
continent…
“…May the Church in Asia heed this message so
that ‘all may have life and have it abundantly’. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.”
The first part of this exhortation also appears in the Post-Synodal
Apostolic Exhortation, Ecclesia in Asia,
which the Pope released during his visit to India. In that document, the fragment
is referenced to his earlier Address to the Sixth Plenary Assembly of the
Federation of Asian Bishops Conference at Manila in January 1995. It seems, the
thought that Africa has already become a Christian continent by the end of the
second millennium and the energies of the Church at the beginning of the next
millennium have to be focused on Asia had been with the Pope and the Church for
long before its public expression in the homily before the Diwali-day
congregation at Delhi.
Distribution and
Expansion of Muslims in the World
The number of Muslims in the world has grown much more than that
of the Christians, as we have seen earlier. But unlike the Christians, Muslims
have not expanded to newer continents of the world during the twentieth
century. Distribution of Christians across the world has been completely
transformed, but distribution of Muslims has remained largely unchanged.
In 1900, of about 200 million Muslims in the world, 156 million
were in Asia and nearly 35 million in Africa. The remaining about 9 million
were in Europe, most of them in the parts adjoining Asia. That distribution
remains largely unchanged. In 2010, of 1.55 billion Muslims in the world, 1.08
billion are in Asia and another 426 million in Africa. There are only about 49
million Muslims outside Asia and Africa; of them 41.5 million are in Europe.
|
Table 6: Number of
Muslims in different Continents of the World
(in thousands) |
|||||
|
1900
|
1970
|
1990
|
2000
|
2010
|
|
|
Total
|
199,941
|
553,528
|
962,357
|
1,188,243
|
1,553,775
|
|
Asia
|
156,140
|
391,407
|
676,678
|
832,879
|
1,078,855
|
|
Africa
|
34,485
|
143,096
|
251,067
|
317,374
|
425,863
|
|
Europe
|
9,235
|
17,623
|
29,206
|
31,566
|
41,490
|
|
North
America
|
10
|
842
|
3,810
|
4,450
|
5,492
|
|
Latin
America
|
58
|
489
|
1,373
|
1,672
|
1,526
|
|
Oceania
|
13
|
71
|
223
|
301
|
549
|
|
Percent share of different
Continents in the Muslims of the World
|
|||||
|
Asia
|
78.09
|
70.71
|
70.31
|
70.09
|
69.43
|
|
Africa
|
17.25
|
25.85
|
26.09
|
26.71
|
27.41
|
|
Europe
|
4.62
|
3.18
|
3.03
|
2.66
|
2.67
|
|
North
America
|
0.01
|
0.15
|
0.40
|
0.37
|
0.35
|
|
Latin
America
|
0.03
|
0.09
|
0.14
|
0.14
|
0.10
|
|
Oceania
|
0.01
|
0.01
|
0.02
|
0.03
|
0.04
|
Looking at the distribution of Muslims in percentage share
rather than absolute numbers, we find that in 1900, about 95 percent of the
Muslims of the world were in Asia and Africa; and, in 2010, more than 97
percent of the Muslims are in these two continents. There has been some change
in the relative balance of Muslims in Asia and Africa. In 1900, 78 percent of
the Muslims were in Asia and 17 percent in Africa; in 2010, the share of Asia
in the Muslims of the world has declined to around 69.4 percent, while that of
Africa has risen to 27.4 percent. This is largely because of the higher growth
of the population of Africa. As we have seen in Table 2, between 1900 and 2010,
the population of Asia has multiplied 4.4 times while that of Africa has grown
9.5 times.
Muslims have grown faster
than others
|
Table 7: Share of Muslims in the populations
of the world and different continents |
||||
|
1900
|
1970
|
1990
|
2010
|
|
|
World
|
12.34
|
14.98
|
18.27
|
22.53
|
|
Asia
|
16.33
|
18.23
|
21.28
|
25.91
|
|
Africa
|
31.99
|
40.08
|
40.84
|
41.66
|
|
Europe
|
2.29
|
2.68
|
4.04
|
5.62
|
|
North America
|
0.01
|
0.36
|
1.35
|
1.59
|
|
Latin America
|
0.09
|
0.17
|
0.31
|
0.26
|
|
Oceania
|
0.21
|
0.37
|
0.85
|
1.50
|
The changes in the distribution of Muslims across the world thus
seem to be largely determined by the higher growth of populations of the
regions where they have a high presence. But within those regions, as well as
in other parts of the world, their share in the population has also indeed gone
up. In the world as a whole, the share of Muslims has risen by around 10
percentage points, from 12.3 percent in 1900 to 22.5 percent in 2010. They have
gained by about the same 10 percentage points in both Asia and Africa. This
gain is mainly because within these regions of high demographic growth, Muslims
have grown even faster than others. In parts of Africa, especially in West
Africa, there indeed have been some conversions from native African religions
to Islam. The growth in their share in Europe from 2.3 percent in 1900 to 5.6
percent in 2010 seems to have been caused by both migration and relative higher
natural growth. There has also been some rise in their share in North America,
Latin America and Oceania, mainly because of migration. But there are not many
Muslims in these continents; their total number in the three together is only
about 7.5 million.
Thus, though the Muslims have grown in numbers, they have not enhanced
their footprint across the world as spectacularly as the Christians have done
in the twentieth century. Even so, there are certain parts of the world,
especially in Asia and Europe, where the presence of Muslims has increased
substantially, with its concomitant consequences. We shall discuss these issues
in the following note in which we look upon the changing religious profile of different
parts of the world in detail.
Other Religions of the
World
Unlike Christianity and Islam, the other major religions of the
world—of which Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese Religions and the native ‘Ethno-religions’
of different regions have the largest populations—are not proselytizing
religions. They do not go around the world converting others to their faith.
Therefore, they are confined almost entirely to their homelands. In 2010, of 949
million Hindus in the world, 933 million are in South Asia; of 495 million
Buddhists, 458 million are in East and Southeast Asia and another 28 million in
South Asia; and, of 436 million Chinese Religionists, 423 millions are in East
Asia and another 11 million in Southeast Asia.
In the context of these religions, it is not proper to talk
about their spread or distribution through the world. These religions have not
expanded into other parts, it is only that some of the followers of these
religions have gone and settled elsewhere. The size and distribution of their
diasporas may have important consequences for their native and perhaps also in some
of the host countries. But their impact is not comparable to the impact of the
spread of Christianity or Islam through the world. We shall give details of the
diasporas of the major religions of the world in a separate note.
CONCLUSIONS
1. The religious profile of the world has changed fairly
drastically in the course the twentieth century.
2. The share of Muslims in the population of the world has
increased by 10 percentage points, from 12.34 percent in 1900 to 22.53 percent
in 2010.
3. The share of Christians, during this period, has remained
unchanged at around one-third of the population of the world.
4. This static share of Christians in the world hides a massive
penetration of Christianity into Africa and parts of Asia. It is this expansion
of Christianity into newer continents that has allowed Christianity to retain its
share in the world in an age when the population of the Christian continent of
Europe was growing much slower than the rest of the world and the European
people, both within the continent and in North America, were undergoing a
widespread loss of faith and turning Atheists and Non-Religious.
5. With the sharp increase in the share of Islam and little
decline in that of Christianity, these two proselytizing religions have come to
form a majority of the population. Their share has increased from 46.8 percent
in 1900 to 55.3 percent in 2010.
6. Corresponding to this rise, there has been a sharp decline in
the share of Chinese Religionists and native so-called ethno-Religionists
everywhere, but especially in Africa.
7. The share of Chinese Religionists in the population of the
world has declined from 23.5 to 6.3 percent and that of native religions of
Africa from 7.3 to 3.5 percent.
8. The more systematized religions of Hinduism and Buddhism,
however, have retained their share intact. In 2010, the former have a share of
13.8 percent and the latter 7.2 percent in the population of the world. In
1900, these shares were 12.5 and 7.8 percent, respectively.
9. These changes in the religious profile of the world have been
driven by both differential growth of populations in different part of the
world and large-scale conversions to Christianity and Islam.
10. Between 1900 and 2010, the population of the world has
multiplied 4.26 times from about 1.62 to 6.90 billion. But the population of
the Christian continent of Europe has multiplied by only 1.83, while that of Africa
has multiplied by 9.5. The population of Latin America has also multiplied by
9.1 times. Asia and North America have multiplied by nearly the same factor as
the average of the world.
11. This shifting of the demographic balance of the world away
from Europe would have normally led to a drastic decline in the share of
Christianity in the population of the world. But along with the decline of
Europe in the population of the world, there has been a rise in the share of
Christianity in Africa and Asia.
12. Because of this expansion, the distribution of Christians in
the world has undergone a transformation. In 1900, more than 82 percent of the
Christians in the world were in Europe and North America and only about 6
percent in Africa and Asia put together. In 2010, only 38 percent of the
Christians are in Europe and North America; and, Africa and Asia together also
accommodate 37 percent of the Christians in the world.
13. Thus at the beginning of the twentieth century, Christianity
was the religion of mainly the European people inhabiting the continents of
Europe and North America. At the beginning of the twenty-first, it has also
become the religion of nearly half of the people of Africa and a significant
part of the people of Asia.
14. This deep penetration of Christianity into Africa has been a
matter of pride for the Church, allowing Pope John Paul II to declare at the
eve of the twenty-first century that the Church had ‘planted the Cross firmly’
in the soil of Europe in the first millennium and in that of America and Africa
in the second. The Pope then went on to pray that the third millennium might
see a similar harvest of faith in the
Asian continent.
15. The number of Muslims in the world has increased even more
than that of the Christians. But, their growth has been largely in Asia and
Africa and, within those continents, in the regions where they had a
considerable presence already at the beginning of the twentieth century.
16. The Muslims have thus increased in numbers but, unlike the
Christians, they have not been able to convert newer continents and regions in
this period.
17. The distribution of Muslims across different continents
remains largely as it was in 1900, except that there is some increase in the
share of Africa in the total number of Muslims in the world and there is some
decline in the share of Europe and the rest of the world.
18. But in all those regions where Muslims have a presence,
their growth in this period has been faster than others. Consequently, the
share of Muslims in the populations of nearly all regions of the world has seen
a considerable rise as we shall see in a following note. This rise has often
led to severe communal tensions in many parts of the world.
19. Unlike the Christians and Muslims, all other major religions
of the world have remained largely confined to their homelands. Because of the
increased movement of people across the world, some of the adherents of these
religions have indeed moved to other parts of the world. But this represents
movement of people, not expansion of religions. We shall look at the quantum
and distribution of the diaspora of religions other than Christianity and Islam
in a later note.
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